Citadel Hedge Funds Jump 8.8%, Extending Hot Streak

(Bloomberg) -- Ken Griffin’s flagship multi-strategy funds extended their solid performance this year through the first half, returning 8.8 percent.

Citadel’s Kensington and Wellington funds, which jumped 13 percent last year, gained 1.5 percent in June, according to a person with knowledge of the matter who asked not to be identified. The first-half performance was led by equity, commodities and fixed-income strategies, while credit and quantitative investments also made money, the person said.

Griffin, who founded the $30 billion firm, is beating his main rival, Izzy Englander’s Millennium Management. Its flagship fund is up almost 6 percent in the first half after being little changed in June, a person familiar with the matter said. Overall, hedge funds have gained 1.2 percent this year on an asset-weighted basis, according to Hedge Fund Research, while the S&P 500 Index returned 2.7 percent through June, with dividends reinvested.

Michael Gelband, the one-time heir apparent to Englander, saw his new hedge fund ExodusPoint Capital Management gain 0.42 percent in its first month of trading, according to a person with knowledge of the matter. The firm started trading in June with $8 billion in assets, the most ever for a hedge fund startup, and about 30 teams that wager in fixed-income and stock markets.

Other multi-strategy hedge funds are also outperforming peers this year. Carlson Capital’s Double Black Diamond fund, the firm’s main hedge fund, gained 6.4 percent this year through June, and the $3.5 billion Empyrean Capital Partners returned 4.8 percent in its hedge fund, said the person. Dan Och’s flagship multi-strategy hedge fund at the $33 billion Och-Ziff Capital Management Group LLC rose 4.4 percent in the period, filings show. And Highbridge Capital Management’s multi-strategy fund returned about 2.4 percent in the first six months, a person with knowledge of the firm said.

Representatives for the firms declined to comment.

Citadel’s Global Equities fund gained 0.2 percent in June, bringing performance for the first half to 5.2 percent. The Global Fixed Income fund was flat last month, leaving returns for the first six months at about 7.1 percent, while the Tactical Trading fund, which uses equity and quant strategies, jumped 1.7 percent in June and is up 7.8 percent for the year.

To contact the reporter on this story: Katia Porzecanski in New York at kporzecansk1@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Margaret Collins at mcollins45@bloomberg.net, Vincent Bielski, Alan Mirabella

©2018 Bloomberg L.P.